Basic Biographical Details

Name:

Robert Burns Dick

Designation:

Architect

Born:

1868

Died:

1954

Bio Notes:

Robert Burns Dick was born in 1868 in Stirling but moved to Newcastle as a child as was educated there. He was articled to William Lister Newcombe of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1888 he moved to the office of Armstrong & Knowles in the same town as assistant, remaining there until setting up on his own in 1893.

Dick formed a partnership with Charles Thomas Marshall in 1895 and the next year, 1896, they won the competition for the Corporation Lodging House in Aberdeen. Marshall had been born in 1866 and had been an apprentice in Newcombe's office alongside Dick, subsequently assisting in Durham County Council Architect's Department and in the office of Richard Knill Freeman in Manchester before commencing independent practice in Newcastle in 1892.

The partnership of Marshall & Dick was dissolved in 1897, with Marshall moving office in 1899 to London and forming a partnership with William Tweedy (born 1872), who was put in charge of the Newcastle office. Also in 1899 Dick was taken into partnership by the older James Thorburn Cackett, the practice name becoming Cackett & Burns Dick.

Dick was admitted FRIBA on 8 January 1906, his proposers being Cackett, Alfred William Stephens Cross and George Hubbard.

In 1923 Robert Norman Houghton MacKellar was taken into partnership. It appears that the practice title did not change to Cackett, Burns Dick & MacKellar until the time of Cackett's death in 1928 or 1929.

Dick retired to Esher in 1940 and died in 1954.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this architect:

Address

Type

Date from

Date to

Notes

24, Grainger Street West, Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Business

1898 or 1900

After 1906

Roseworth Lawn, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Private

1906 *

Pilgrim House, Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Private/business(?)

1914 *

Millmount, Fenham, Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Private/business(?)

1914 *

* earliest date known from documented sources.

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this architect (click on an item to view details):